Comments on: Clamping mitre joints

By: toby muir wilson

toby muir wilson — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 06:49:40 +0000

I use a similar cramping technique for mitres (taught by Robert) but on batch production the cramping blocks are attached to sheets of ply which fit outside the carcass less 5 mm to see the joint, also use brown packaging tape , several layers exert a lot of pressure and are almost self squareing. Good mitre right angle keys are available from Hafele and applied into the end of the mitre using the Festo domino cutter, or make your own finger jointed keys, they give excellent side grain to side grain glueing and the finger joint can be adjusted to diferent angles. The domino places the strength of the key very close to the surface unlike a bisquit.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:55:14 +0000

Hi Gayl! Welcome to my blog.

I’ve never heard of the water technique - sounds scary. I have heard of the paper technique but never used it. Will try it and report back. Sounds like it could speed the cleanup.

By: Gayl Leake

Gayl Leake — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:24:22 +0000

Hello Mark, I have just discovered this site, which is an excellent setup. I am computer challenged myself,but anyway.
Yes, I remember using large pine blocks to pull up a mitre joint which were sprinkled with water to create temporary adhesion -this created a ’suction’ that was remarkable but lost its effect once the blocks were repositioned a few times. This technique isn’t foolproof in the stressfully short time one has when gluing up with yellow glue.
The next time we rubbed on the glueblocks with yellow glue until only a thin smear of glue remained and then inserted newspaper between the block and the work. After the glueup, a sharp hammer blow to the side removed the block easily which sheared off at the paperline. I remember shavings of newsprint from cleaning up of the surface looked interesting.

By: Fergus

Fergus — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:30:39 +0000

That is really usefull.Not a method I have seen before. I always have plenty of MDf offcuts as well-so now they have a use.

Many thanks !

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:35:12 +0000

Keith - Thanks very much for the encouragement. Quite an honour when I see how professional your web site is! Happy to have found your site. Enjoying the videos. A great service - keep it up!

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:23:49 +0000

Bill - I forgot to mention hot-glue. I have used it but seem to recall at least one failure. All depends on the level of risk you are willing to accept. Hot glue is probably a good compromise for many situations.

I have about 17 of those sash cramps of various lengths. Picked them up in the early 90’s. You don’t see them made to the same level of finish these days. I just happened to be showing someone my mate’s report of his Churchill Fellowship trip to Europe and I came across this pic of Robert Ingham in his workshop. Check out the sash cramps! Damn close to showing off. Seems short a few G-cramps tho. He may have still been setting up. (Robert is the brother of George Ingham who I trained with here in Canberra.)

By: Keith Cruickshank

Keith Cruickshank — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:54:30 +0000

Fantastic explanation and photos! Artfully done. - Keith (www.woodtreks.com)

By: Bill Stankus

Bill Stankus — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:47:38 +0000

I’ve done similar gluing on miters. The type of wood matters, some open grain species aren’t friending during clean-up. So does size of the project. Mostly tho, when I do miters I include a spline.

For the glue blocks I’ve also used hot glue because it has reasonably good holding strength in one direction - in line with the clamp direction. When removing the glued on block a hammer blow from the side will usually knock the block off. Residual glue is easily removed w/ chisel.

BTW, I’m impressed with all those Record bar clamps - haven’t seen those in some time. I have a few and always wished I had more.